Ye Lingling Arrives
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When autumn came, ginkgo leaves carpeted the courtyard of Nuoding Academy.
Every morning, when Nan Feng returned from the back mountain, he swept up the fallen leaves outside the dormitory on his way in.
Xiao Wu laughed at him, saying he was "born to be a work-study student." He pretended not to hear.
After his Soul Power reached level sixteen, he increased his daily training time in the underground training room from the time it took an incense stick to burn to two hours.
With the accelerated circulation and compression methods, his meridian walls grew thick and resilient as the Power of Mountain Suppression repaired them. The Soul Power in his dantian was nearly fifty percent denser than it had been at level fourteen, and the azure light in the crack at the tower's base was a shade brighter.
On the morning of the new school year's first day, Nan Feng finished sweeping the leaves and headed for the classroom. A crowd had gathered in the middle of the courtyard. The work-study students huddled together, whispering, while several older students stood at the classroom door, craning their necks toward the far end of the walkway.
Xiao Wu squeezed out of the crowd and ran up to Nan Feng, the bow on her scorpion braid slightly crooked and her face alight with excitement.
"There's a new transfer student, and she's super pretty! And her Martial Soul is really rare!"
Xiao Wu grabbed Nan Feng's sleeve and pulled him toward the crowd.
Nan Feng let her pull him two steps before stopping.
His gaze went past Xiao Wu's shoulder and settled on the new student registering at the end of the walkway.
She was a girl about his age, dressed in a plain white dress without any unnecessary accessories. Her skin was almost translucent, and her lips were pale.
Most striking of all were her eyes.
They were exceptionally clear and bright, their irises lighter than an ordinary person's, like amber diluted with water.
Her gaze held no aggression, but it was penetrating, as though it could see straight beneath the skin.
The girl stood outside the academic affairs office, speaking with the teacher handling registration.
From a distance, Nan Feng caught a few words: Ye Clan, Nine Heart Begonia, Martial Soul inheritance.
Nine Heart Begonia.
Nan Feng stood where he was, his gaze lingering on the girl for a breath. Nine Heart Begonia was one of the rarest support-type Martial Souls on the continent. Only one person in each generation could inherit it. Its inheritor could not cultivate offensive Soul Skills, and all their Soul Power went toward healing and support.
He remembered the setting from reading the novel in his previous life: the sole inheritor of Nine Heart Begonia on the Douluo Continent.
But in the original story, Ye Lingling was a student at Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Why had she come to Nuoding?
"Her name's Ye Lingling." Xiao Wu leaned close to his ear and lowered her voice. "She just transferred in and was assigned to our class in the intermediate division. I heard her mother was the previous generation's Nine Heart Begonia inheritor. She passed away last year, and after Ye Lingling inherited the Martial Soul, she had nowhere to go, so the academy took her in."
Nan Feng said nothing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ye Lingling finish registering and turn around, her gaze sweeping across the courtyard.
Her pale amber eyes passed over the faces of the new students watching her, lingering on no one until they fell on Nan Feng.
She paused for a beat.
It was so brief that no one around her noticed.
Nan Feng felt it.
When Ye Lingling's gaze fell on his face, the Bronze Tower deep in his soul trembled.
The tremor was subtle, like someone tapping a finger against the tower wall, the sound spreading through his soul and throughout his body.
The azure light in the crack at the tower's base flickered, then steadied again.
She caught that flicker.
Ye Lingling looked away and followed the teacher from the academic affairs office toward the classroom.
Xiao Wu had already run over to speak to Ye Lingling, chattering through an introduction and asking whether her Martial Soul could cure illnesses and where her clan was.
Ye Lingling answered in an even, quiet voice. She was not cold, merely sparing with her words.
During practical class that afternoon, Nan Feng and Ye Lingling were assigned to the same cultivation group.
Practical classes at Nuoding Academy usually placed three to five work-study students in a group to practice Soul Power control and basic combat at the training grounds. Besides Nan Feng and Xiao Wu, their group had two other work-study students. With Ye Lingling, there were five in all.
The teacher leading them asked each person to demonstrate the characteristics of their Soul Power fluctuations first, so the group could coordinate more easily. Nan Feng deliberately held back, releasing only the standard fluctuations of level sixteen.
Xiao Wu's Soft Bone Rabbit Soul Power was light and agile, leaving a string of blurred afterimages across the training grounds.
Of the remaining two work-study students, one had a sickle Martial Soul and the other a millstone Martial Soul. Their fluctuations were ordinary.
Last was Ye Lingling.
She stood in the center of the training grounds, and a ring of pinkish-white light emerged beneath her feet as she circulated her Soul Power.
The phantom image of a Nine Heart Begonia rose from her palm: a half-open pink flower, its petal edges gleaming like pearls. As the light spread, the entire training ground was enveloped in a gentle healing presence.
The scraped flesh on a nearby work-study student's knee closed and scabbed over the instant the light touched it.
The teacher nodded.
"Nine Heart Begonia, a top-tier support-type Martial Soul. Ye Lingling, your Soul Power fluctuations are on the gentler side. You're suited to providing support from the rear."
"Nan Feng, take the front. Your Bronze Tower Martial Soul has a suppressive effect; use it in coordination with Xiao Wu's close-range attacks."
Nan Feng acknowledged him.
Ye Lingling walked over and stopped beside him, less than two steps away.
Nan Feng sensed the healing presence around her, carrying the scents of medicinal herbs and morning dew. She stood steadily and controlled her Soul Power with ease. She had clearly received systematic training in the Ye Clan.
"Your Soul Power fluctuations aren't right."
Ye Lingling spoke so softly that only Nan Feng could hear her.
She did not look at him. Her gaze remained on the combat moves the teacher was demonstrating ahead, and her lips barely moved. Nan Feng did not answer immediately.
"Something is wrapped around your Soul Power fluctuations, holding them tightly in check," Ye Lingling continued, as though stating a fact. "The fluctuations on the outside are level sixteen. What's inside is much denser than level sixteen."
"The Soul Power density your meridians are bearing is far beyond that of Soul Masters at the same level."
Nan Feng turned his head and glanced at her.
Ye Lingling's profile was clear and unblemished in the afternoon light. She looked calmly ahead, as though speaking of something unrelated to training. Her perception was more precise than he had expected.
Nine Heart Begonia support-type Soul Masters were naturally sensitive to life energy and could sense the circulation of Soul Power within a Soul Master's body.
Standing beside him just now, she had already swept her Soul Power tendrils through his meridians.
"And there's something else." Ye Lingling turned her head, her pale amber eyes meeting his. "Deep in your soul, there's a power I've never seen before. It's older than Soul Power and more substantial than healing power, like light filtering up from somewhere very, very deep."
Nan Feng's heart skipped a beat. Ye Lingling's eyes saw through people too clearly, as though they could look straight through skin at the soul.
He could tell that the way she perceived things was different from Xiao Wu's. Xiao Wu relied on the Soft Bone Rabbit's sense of smell and combat instincts, rough and direct.
Ye Lingling relied on Nine Heart Begonia's innate sensitivity to the source of life, delicate and penetrating. It was like an exceedingly fine silver needle probing into the cracks of his soul.
"You saw accurately," Nan Feng said.
He did not deny it. There was no point; Ye Lingling's perception did not need his confirmation to find the answer. He had an intuition about this girl: she would not tell anyone.
Ye Lingling asked no further questions.
She turned her gaze back to the combat demonstration ahead and, after a few breaths of silence, spoke.
"I won't tell anyone your secret. My Martial Soul can sense a lot of things, but I never speak carelessly about them."
Nan Feng nodded.
The combat demonstration on the training grounds continued.
Xiao Wu was sparring with the teacher, her pink figure darting and twisting across the center of the grounds, her kicks fierce. Nan Feng stood at the back of the group, with Ye Lingling beside him. No third person had heard their conversation.
All afternoon, Nan Feng could feel Ye Lingling's perception sweeping over him, confirming something before withdrawing. She was observing him in a quieter, more systematic way than Xiao Wu.
When training ended, Xiao Wu ran over and pulled Ye Lingling toward the dining hall.
After Xiao Wu had dragged her two steps, Ye Lingling turned her head and glanced at Nan Feng.
The glance was brief, but Nan Feng read its meaning.
Ye Lingling was assessing him.
Her way of doing so was different from Yu Xiaogang's. Yu Xiaogang used data accumulated over twenty years and a theoretical framework; Ye Lingling used Nine Heart Begonia's innate perception of life.
They had reached the same conclusion: there was something not right about Nan Feng.
That night, in the underground training room, Nan Feng sat on the stone platform and sank his consciousness into the tower.
Old Huai already knew what had happened that day. The old man leaned against the edge of the crack, his cloudy eyes half closed.
"That Nine Heart Begonia girl has stronger perception than I thought." Old Huai yawned. "That scan she did today nearly touched the Primordial World Imprint at the core of your soul. But she withdrew quickly and didn't actually probe inside. The girl knows where to stop."
Nan Feng asked, "Will she be trouble?"
Old Huai snorted.
"I wouldn't call her trouble. But those eyes of hers are too sharp. If you spend more time with her, there'll be a lot you can't hide. A Nine Heart Begonia inheritor's perception of life energy is innate. The deeper her cultivation, the more clearly she'll see."
"That little girlfriend of yours, Xiao Wu, relies on smell. Ye Lingling relies on touch at the soul level. One smells things out; the other feels them out."
Nan Feng did not respond to the words "little girlfriend."
He focused his consciousness on his dantian and circulated his Soul Power, accelerating its flow. Soul Power sped through his meridians, while the Power of Mountain Suppression seeped through the gap beneath the door at the tower's base, washing through every meridian in alternating waves of scorching heat and warmth.
He closed his eyes, pressed his tangled thoughts deep into his dantian, and let them circulate with his Soul Power until they were digested.
His Soul Power was at level sixteen. He was still four levels away from level twenty.
No matter how strong Ye Lingling's perception was, she could not see the whole of the tower. She knew where to stop, and so did he.
Outside the window, the moon moved toward the edge of the sky, and the underground stone chamber fell dark.
Only the deep yellow light tinged with purple beneath the Soul Ring in Nan Feng's palm shone in the darkness, answering the azure light in the crack at the tower's base above and below, pulsing with a steady weight.